Texas police are getting help from the FBI and other agencies to follow leads and try to a find 14-year-old kidnapping victim and her "obsessed" alleged kidnapper.

Investigators believe Ruby Zavala is in serious danger after police say 23-year-old Jesus Ramirez abducted Ruby, her mother, and her sister from a Mount Pleasant, Texas, church at knife point.

Officers believe Ramirez used the mother's truck to take the three women from Saint Michael's Catholic Church at 1403 E. First St. in Mount Pleasant around 1 p.m. Sunday.

Ramirez later let the mother and Ruby's sister go, but continued on with Ruby Zavala.

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Early Monday morning, NBC 5 gathered exclusive video of police recovering the truck Ramirez was believed to have been driving from a wooded mining area. The truck was found wrecked and abandoned. Police are now towing the truck to search for evidence and using search dogs to track the pair.

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell says police do not believe the teen is willingly with the 23-year-old Ramirez, though they have reportedly dated in the past without her parents' knowledge.

Isbell says Ramirez is apparently obsessed with the teen and has a criminal record involving children.

"The suspect has already previously been charged with sexual assault of a child before," Isbell says. "We have reason to believe he may be mentally unstable and suicidal."

Ramirez pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, in 2007. He was given deferred adjudication and spent five years on probation.

The missing girl is 14-year-old Ruby Zavala. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 120 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white top, blue jeans and tan shoes.

The suspect is 23-years-old Jesus Ramirez. He is 5 foot, 9 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black baseball cap.

Child Protective Services is trying to figure out why eight children in Dallas were left alone in a home and later dropped off at a fire station.

CPS investigators have located and are talking with the mother of the eight children, aged 3 to 12, who were reportedly left alone Sunday morning at a house in Oak Cliff.

Police said two women who described themselves as acquaintances from church had gone over to the family's house to check on the children and did not find their mother at the house.

Around 7 a.m., the women dropped the children off at the fire station at 745 West Illinois in Dallas.

Dallas Fire Rescue told NBC 5 that the children were at the station for about 40 minutes before police and Child Protective Services responded. Firefighters fed and entertained the children before they were taken into custody.

The children could not tell investigators how long they had been on their own. 

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All eight siblings are now in foster care and in good health. The children will remain in foster care temporarily while the investigation continues, according to CPS spokesperson Marissa Gonzales.

Investigators would not comment on what, if any, explanation was provided by the mother for leaving the children. CPS did not reveal if the mother would face charges.

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:35 AM EDT

When the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is dedicated on Thursday, President Barack Obama, all the living former presidents, dignitaries and thousands of visitors will descend on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas to see the largest and most expensive of all the presidential centers.

Opening to the public on May 1, the library will showcase some of the most trying moments of the 43rd president's time in office, including the bullhorn he used when he spoke to first responders working at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks, and one of the maps showing Hurricane Katrina's damage with "The President has seen" stamped in red lettering across the top. 

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Docent Patricia Flynn demonstrates an interactive with information about conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq during a tour of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Wednesday. More than 8,000 people are expected to attend Thursday's invitation-only dedication of the center.

Though it will crowd out the others in the headlines this week, the George W. Bush Presidential Library is but the 13th of the presidential library and museum facilities. Here's how it stacks up.

Least popular
Last year, only 44,549 people visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Among the exhibits at the facility in West Branch, Iowa, are 440 embroidered flour sacks — gifts from the people of Belgium as thanks for establishing the volunteer-driven relief program during World War I that distributed food to the war-ravaged country.

Most popular
With well over 300,000 visitors in FY2012, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., is the most popular of the presidential libraries. Clinton's library includes a full-scale replica of the Oval Office, set up just as it was in the Clinton White House. It's "always a draw for young and old," says Clinton Foundation spokesperson Jordan Johnson. 

Danny Johnston / AP

The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., seen in November 2009.

Smallest space
Every president since Herbert Hoover, who served as commander in chief from 1929 to 1933, has been awarded a presidential library. At 47,000 square feet, Hoover's measures smallest of all. Compared to the Clinton Presidential Center, "our footprint is smaller than their glass front," says Hoover archivist Matt Schaefer.

Biggest space
George W. Bush's entire facility, which includes a library, museum, policy center, and institute, takes the cake at 226,560 square feet in total space across all building floors . As the saying goes: Everything is bigger in Texas.

Larry Stoddard / AP file

Former Presidents Herbert Hoover, right, and Harry Truman walk through doorway of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 1962. The two took a short tour of the library during a dedication ceremony in Hoover's birthplace on his 88th birthday.

Smallest collection
The Hoover Library — the facility is filled with 6,600 cubic feet of traditional archive material, 140 cubic feet of audio and video, and some 9,000 museum artifacts. By contrast, the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum boasts 28,000 cubic feet of materials on display, including the telephone Nixon used to call Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon to congratulate them on the first successful lunar landing.

Despite its relatively small stature, the dedication of Hoover's library in 1962 began the important tradition of having living presidents attend. Crossing party lines, former President Harry Truman joined Hoover, saying, "I wouldn't miss it." Eisenhower was invited but didn't attend.

Most expensive
Once again, the honor goes to the George W. Bush presidential library. The project was designed by Robert A. M. Stern, the dean of architecture at Yale. The price tag? $250 million, according to architecture firm spokesman Christian Rizzo.

Least expensive
At the opposite end of the spectrum sits the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library. Adjusted for inflation, FDR's facility cost about $6 million. 

Most famous architect
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, ever the trend-setter, chose I. M. Pei to design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum before Pei was a household name.

Steven Senne / AP file

Boston's John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Least famous architect
The least-famous architect was one of the presidents himself. Among Roosevelt's many passions was architecture and the final version of his library hewed closely to a Dutch Colonial sketch he drew envisioning the project, which no doubt saved a hefty chunk of change in design fees.

Slideshow: Bush's legacy

Timothy Clary / AFP-Getty Images

George W. Bush entered the White House after one of the closest and most contested elections in U.S. history. The two-term president served during some of the nation's most turbulent times. Take a look at the pivotal images from George W. Bush's presidency.

Launch slideshow

Related:

• Who foots the bill for presidential libraries?
• As Bush re-emerges on public stage, a mixed presidential legacy takes shape

The driver involved in a fatal bus crash earlier this month failed to maintain his lane along a North Texas highway before the bus careened off the roadway and struck a concrete barrier, authorities said Monday.

A preliminary investigation found no defect with the Cardinal Coach Line bus, and instead cited an error by driver Loyd Rieve, 65, said Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Lonny Haschel.

The bus was taking senior citizens to a casino in Oklahoma when it struck the barrier in Irving and toppled over April 11, prompting a large emergency response. 

Two people were killed and more than 40 hurt in the immediate aftermath. Haschel said a third passenger died Sunday from injuries she suffered. 

Rieve was not immediately available for comment. A phone message left with Cardinal Coach Line, based in Mansfield, was not returned. 

Court records show Rieve was driving for another company in 1998 when he struck and killed a man who was trying to render aid at an accident scene on a highway near Dallas. A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Rieve on a charge of negligent homicide stemming from the collision, but Rieve and his employer still faced two lawsuits claiming they were negligent. 

One lawsuit, filed by the family of the man who was killed, resulted in a jury finding Central West Motor Stages Inc. of Grand Prairie was negligent for employing Rieve. However, the jury awarded no damages, deciding the Samaritan, 22-year-old Chad Rosell of Detroit Lakes, Minn., was largely at fault. 

Rieve's wife, Gail Rieve, told The Associated Press earlier this month the bus struck Rosell because he jumped onto the road and the vehicle's brakes were faulty. 

"Loyd did everything he could to save those people on the bus and that young man," she said. 

Alice Stanley, 82, Paula Hahn, 69, and Sue Taylor, 81, were killed in the latest bus crash. The other 44 passengers sustained various injuries. Taylor, known as "Casino Sue," organized trips to casinos all over Oklahoma and Mississippi, complete with treats for riders and prizes for the biggest loser. 

At least two people were killed and 36 injured Thursday when a bus carrying people to a casino overturned on a highway outside Dallas, authorities said.

The crash happened in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Video from NBC affiliate KXAS showed crews working to free trapped passengers and carrying people away on stretchers.

“People were screaming, on top of each other,” Dan Risik, who identified himself as a passenger on the bus, told KXAS. “I was on top of a friend of mine, and a woman was on top of me on my leg. I couldn’t move up, or what have you, until help arrived and they climbed through the windows.”

Risik said the bus was headed to Choctaw Casino Resort, just over the Oklahoma state line and about 90 miles from Dallas. Many of the passengers were elderly, Risik said.

Lm Otero / AP

Emergency responders works the scene of bush crash on the George Bush Turnpike on April 11, in Irving, Texas.

Lonny Haschel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed the two deaths to KXAS. Rusty Wilson, the assistant fire chief of Irving, said 36 were injured. About an hour after the crash, Haschel said it was not clear whether passengers were still trapped inside.

The bus veered out of the northbound lanes of a state highway, struck a rubber roadside barrier, skidded back across the highway, hit a concrete barrier on the other side and overturned, Haschel said. The bus carved deep skid marks into the grass in the median and came to rest on its passenger side.

Ed Cluck said he helped pull a number of people from the bus before rescuers arrived.

“It was pretty bad, people screaming. There was obviously a lot of pain,” Cluck said. “You could see the people that were obviously in very bad pain and shape and you just couldn’t get to them because there were other people on top of them.”

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched regional investigators to the scene of the accident.

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas said it received 15 people transported from the crash. Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving said it was treating six passengers.

Dr. Alex Eastman, a trauma surgeon at Parkland, said that the patients ranged in age from about 66 to 80 years old. Four patients in critical condition were taken to Parkland. All of the patients in critical were talking when they arrived, Eastman said.

Authorities closed the highway and a nearby toll booth and set up a command center in the parking lot of a nearby bank. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.

KXAS reported that Irving fire officials ordered all their trucks to help.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

KXAS

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:50 AM EDT

Dallas firefighters were called to the Dallas Zoo after a malfunction stranded 93 people on a monorail.

Dallas Fire-Rescue was called to the scene at about 3:30 p.m.

Fortunately, the monorail stopped at a location that was easily reached by firefighters.  Using as many as five extension ladders, firefighters were able to remove all of the trapped passengers from the monorail in about a half hour.

Shortly after 4 pm., NBC 5 reporter Chris Van Horne tweeted on @NBCDFW that, "I count at least 10 @dfrincidents trucks and ambulances here @DallasZoo still no sight of monorail though."

There were no injuries in connection with the malfunction or rescue.

There's been no comment about the incident from the zoo, and the cause of the malfunction has not been determined.

A Dallas jury has awarded the family of a woman who was fatally run over by a monster truck in a strip club's parking lot $10.5 million.

Eric Crutchfield ran over Kasey McKenzie, 23, in March 2011 as he was leaving the Spearmint Rhino.

The family filed a civil suit against the club, saying it overserved Crutchfield.

"Mr. Crutchfield arrived at the club around 10 p.m.," said Michael Schmidt, the attorney for McKenzie's parents. "He was at the club for four hours, and he was served in excess of 10 drinks and shots while he was in the club."

According to the lawsuit, Crutchfield's blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. He is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

Schmidt showed jurors surveillance video of Crutchfield drinking inside the club that night.

"We believe that obviously he was intoxicated; it was apparent to the bartender and the club that he was intoxicated, and he got behind the wheel of his monster truck and ran over Kasey McKenzie," Schmidt said.

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Under what's called the "dram shop" doctrine, restaurants, bars and liquor stores can be held liable if they serve alcohol to customers who are clearly drunk.

The $10.5 million judgment in the case is said to be the biggest dram shop verdict in Dallas since 1985.

Schmidt called the verdict closure for McKenzie's family.

A corporate representative for the Spearmint Rhino said the company had no comment on the ruling.

A homeowner fatally shot an intruder as he climbed through a window and into his home Monday afternoon, Dallas police say.

Police said the homeowner heard a noise inside his residence and shot a man, later identified as 33-year-old Deyfon Pipkins, aka BJ, as he climbed through the window.

"The homeowner heard a noise. He came around the corner, saw the individual trying to climb into the window and according to the law, the castle doctrine, he used deadly force," said Sgt. Calvin Johnson, with the Dallas Police Department.

According to police, the homeowner then called 911. When police arrived, officers found Pipkins’ body lying lifeless in the window.

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Pipkins' mother, Catherine, said she had been called to the scene by her daughter-in-law and said the crime sounded like something her son would do.
 
"Yeah, it's something he would do ... Somebody called me and said my son got shot. That's the reason I'm standing here," said Catherine Pipkins. 

The woman said her son did not live at the home.

Pipkins had a lengthy criminal history in Dallas that included numerous charges for theft, trespassing and possession of a controlled substance.

Police said the shooting is a Castle Doctrine case and the Dallas County Grand Jury will decide whether or not the homeowner faces any charges.

NBC 5's Omar Villafranca and Kevin Cokely contributed to this report.

A couple with four children were shot and killed in an argument over dog feces on Monday, police in Texas said.

Officers were called to a shooting at the Sable Ridge Apartments in Dallas at about 8 a.m. Monday.

When officers arrived, they found two people, later identified as 32-year-old Michelle Jackson and 31-year-old Jamie Stafford, dead at the scene from apparent gunshot wounds.  An infant inside the couple's apartment was not injured.

After talking with witnesses, police began searching for Chung Kim, a resident of the complex identified by residents as a man who lived in the unit below Stafford and Jackson and was seen leaving the complex after the shooting.

Police later located Kim in his black Lexus SUV nearby and took him into custody.

Investigators said the couple had been dumping dog feces on the patio and at the front door of Kim's apartment.

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Police said Kim pulled out a gun and shot Jackson as she stood on her balcony. Police said Kim then went upstairs and into the couple's apartment and shot Stafford as he jumped off the balcony while trying to escape. 

Police said Kim then stood over Stafford and shot him again.

Residents said they heard arguing followed by several gunshots.

"I heard about eight or nine gunshots just go off, ‘Bow, bow, bow,’ like three separate times,” said resident Michael Issa. “It was like, first there was two or three, then there was a pause for like 30 or 40 seconds and then there was another three or four shots, and there was a pause, and a couple more shots

"I waited for like three or four minutes and I ain't hear nothing. I came outside to smoke a cigarette and look upstairs and there's feet hanging over my head," he added.

A friend of the victim said there had been several arguments over pets and noise.

One neighbor, Yoland Washington, spoke of the couple's children, including the infant who was home at the time of the shooting.

"When they come home today, their mother and their father is gone. Little baby, they call the newborn Little Mama, Little Mama is not going to never know her parents,” said Washington.

Child protection officer Marissa Gonzales said they had taken temporary custody of a one-month-old child found unharmed inside the apartment and that three other children who were at school at the time of the shooting are now with relatives.

Keaton Fox, Greg Janda and Stefan Gorman, NBC5, contributed to this report.

A church youth leader is charged with sexual assault of a child and online solicitation after an alleged sexual relationship with a teenager.

Police said James Ackley, a 25-year-old youth leader at University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, had a relationship with a teenager younger than 17.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the relationship began in August 2012 at a retreat he was chaperoning.

The victim told police that "... during the retreat they held hands and kissed, but was unable to do anything else because Defendant Ackley had a girlfriend who was also attending the retreat."

When they returned home, "they would exchange text messages describing sex acts that they would perform on each other," she told police.

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The victim told police the two had sex in his truck in October at a parking lot outside St. Michael's Church.

In a letter to parishioners, UPUMC said it was working with police:

"We will also continue to take action to protect the children and youth of our church family by providing them a safe and secure environment," the church wrote. "Our hearts and prayers go out to all involved as we seek the Spirit's guidance, healing and care at every turn."

Ackley did some contract work at Bishop Lynch High School, helping with lighting events, and substituted on two half days. He was not a full-time school employee.

UPUMC said he underwent training in order to be a youth leader and a background check.

A pizza cook who admitted making a hoax call warning of liquid explosives on a plane, causing the flight to be diverted, must write an apology letter to every delayed passenger.

Kenneth Smith Jr., 26, pleaded guilty Monday to malicious false information about an explosive, and false information and hoaxes, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Eastern District of Pennsylvania Office.

The Philadelphia man's call to airport police led to US Airways flight 1267, bound for Dallas-Forth Worth, being diverted back to Philadelphia airport shortly after take-off on Sept 6.

Sixty-nine passengers and five crew members were on the plane.

Smith faces up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 when he is sentenced on April 16. He has agreed to pay restitution and write an apology letter to every passenger who was on the flight when it was delayed, and reimburse the emergency response costs, prosecutors said.

Smith’s reasoning for the hoax, according to federal prosecutors, was to target a passenger on the flight, Christopher Shell, who was at the time identified as the ex-boyfriend of Smith’s girlfriend.

Reportedly Shell had posted a compromising photo of the woman on Facebook.

Shell was removed from the airplane in handcuffs. He later wound up making it to Dallas where we was arrested on two outstanding warrants, police said. NBC Dallas spoke to Shell in October about the plane hoax and how it derailed his career.